


Chuck E Cheese

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Series: Eldritch Joshua and Once Human Gordon [2]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Angst, Benrey in the form of skeleton, gordon sadman, implied trans gordon, implied trans man pregnancy, it happens sometimes, joshua!, joshua's other parent is an eldritch being, that gordon had to kill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27181084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: Birthday Parties are vaguely tiring, especially after apparently killing an eldritch being.
Series: Eldritch Joshua and Once Human Gordon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984049
Comments: 3
Kudos: 90





	Chuck E Cheese

**Author's Note:**

> Gordon is being sad. I just had the thought of Gordon casually mentioning he killed an eldritch being before and all of them going OH WELL-

The party was nice, in the way a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese could be, with the crappy pizza and too bright too loud atmosphere that bordered on ruining Gordon’s entire mood. 

Well that was a lie. 

He had already been down, far far down, before they had stepped foot into this Chuck E Cheese. 

Of course, it was Tommy’s birthday, and he didn’t want to ruin that, so he did his best, then distanced himself the moment Tommy got distracted by something else. 

Sunkist followed him, which was... well, whatever. Fine. That’s a thing. 

She stared up at him from under the table, heavy on his feet where she lay, and honestly it was rather comforting for her to be there with him. Even if she did alert the others to the fact that he wasn’t... okay. 

Shitty pizza on one of the plates in front of him, the other holding a significantly less shitty, but way way too sweet slice of cake, and a soda can, that he was staring at quietly, bright orange with the Sunkist logo across the side, and Gordon knew it was the right size, but the color was off enough that he forced the thought out of his mind, G-Man wouldn’t allow grenades at Tommy’s birthday and wouldn’t hand them out, and where the fuck was Joshua?

Perhaps defeating an eldritch being was... not exactly good on the ol psyche. 

“Gordon.” His eyes flicked up, to Bubby, who was standing at the table, eyes narrowed at him, but Gordon had spent enough time near Bubby to know it was worry, not anger, that brought him over to him. Gordon blinked at him slowly, and Bubby sighed, sliding into the seat across from him. 

“You know...” Gordon said carefully, carefully picking up the soda can to roll it between his hands. “Killing an eldritch being is different when you’re doing it for the second time.” 

Bubby’s eyes widened, just barely, and Gordon smiled, turning his head to Coomer and Tommy, who he had known were standing there, just out of the way, having heard the hushed argument that happened moments before Bubby approached. He waved them over, and they came, Coomer sliding into the booth next to Bubby, and Tommy next to him. G-Man was across the restaurant at the moment, but Gordon had no doubts that G-Man was watching, was listening. 

“Can anyone confirm Joshua’s okay?” He asked, carefully, and Tommy’s eyes seemed to glow, though he couldn’t be sure with everything else glowing around him. There was no way to be sure. “I mean, last time this happened it was his other parent, and they wanted him dead so...” 

“He’s okay, Mr. Freeman.” Tommy said carefully, and Gordon nodded slightly. 

“Benrey’s not dead, you know. You can’t kill an eldritch being with brute force, it doesn’t work. At this point, I’ve accepted it. We can’t get rid of him. I can’t get rid of them. It’s a cycle, really...” 

They fell into silence as Gordon carefully took a bite of his pizza, before sliding the plate of cake over to Tommy. “Bit too sweet for me.” He said softly, and Tommy nodded, but didn’t eat it just yet. 

“Joshua...” 

“Isn’t human. I don’t think I was anymore after. I don’t know if they cursed me or blessed me in the ending moments of their life, but... Joshua’s eldritch shit doesn’t hurt me, and after everything in Black Mesa, I don’t think I can die.” 

He was so resigned to it, the fate of a human trapped in a eldritch’s life span with almost none of the benefits, and Tommy wrapped an arm around him carefully, tugging him close, ignoring the way the metal of the HEV suit dug into his chest.  
“What happened?” Coomer asked softly, and Gordon closed his eyes for a moment, wrapping his arms around his chest. 

“I fell in love with someone too bright and big for my own good, didn’t realize I could have a kid with them... they wanted me to, heh, in their words ‘get rid of it’ and I refused. Ending up catching them trying to kill Joshua a bit later and I snapped. They kept coming, of course, so I did what any parent would do and took out the threat against my son.” Gordon sighed softly, shaking his head. “I can’t say I regret any of it. I lost someone I loved with me entire soul, in protection of the most important person in the world to me. It’s hard to say I regret any of it, but I... wish it could have been avoided. That there was a chance they could come back to me one day.” 

Gordon laughed bitterly, leaning his head back into Tommy’s shoulder, eyes still closed, a bitter, angry smile on his face. “But if they came back, they’d jus try to kill my son again. I’d go through everything I did again and again if it meant that Joshua was safe.” 

Tommy shifted, his hand coming up into Gordon’s near matted hair, and Gordon sniffled softly, opening his eyes to stare out the window, across the dark to meet the sockets of the skeleton standing outside.

**Author's Note:**

> Skeleton man :)


End file.
